Workplace Retaliation: What It Is and How to Prevent It
Kimberly Prescott
HR Executive | Veteran | Podcaster | 2022 Howard County Chamber of Commerce Businessperson of the Year | 2023 Leadership Maryland
As an HR professional, you will be tasked with resolving many difficult situations between employees in the workplace and addressing employee behaviors that can have a negative effect on the working environment. Workplace retaliation is a concept that is likely to come up in these situations, and some instances can even be against the law. It is important to have a thorough understanding of what constitutes workplace retaliation, how to handle it, and how to prevent it from happening in the future.
What is Workplace Retaliation?
Workplace retaliation is when an employer punishes their employee for engaging in legally protected activity. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lists the following as examples of legally protected activity: filing an EEO complaint, reporting workplace discrimination, resisting sexual advances and requesting accommodations due to a disability or religious practice.
The word “punish” implies serious actions such as termination or salary reduction, but almost any negative action taken in response to a legally protected activity can be considered workplace retaliation. Other examples of workplace retaliation can include transferring an employee to a different position or location, giving a negative performance review, limiting an employee’s work hours, or keeping them from attending business meetings and other events. The employer can be taken to court if the employee can prove that they have engaged in workplace retaliation. These rules are to protect the employee from being unfairly punished for reporting harassment or discrimination in the workplace.
How to Handle Workplace Retaliation
?When an employee comes to you as an HR employee to report possible workplace retaliation, you should take the time to consider the right course of action. Investigate the claim by discussing the situation with the manager or supervisor and reviewing your company’s workplace retaliation policy. It is also important to get the perspective of other employees to see if they also observe retaliatory behavior. From there, you can determine whether retaliation took place and how to resolve the situation best.
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How to Prevent Workplace Retaliation
?Preventing instances of workplace retaliation needs to start with the employees and managers themselves. Hold company-wide training to make sure all employees know they have a right to report any misconduct in the workplace without fear of retaliation. Give your employees multiple avenues through which to issue complaints beyond their immediate supervisor, such as an HR professional or another member of the management team. You want employees to feel comfortable if they ever need to address problematic workplace behavior.
Provide training to managers specifically on workplace retaliation. They need to know what situations qualify as workplace retaliation so that they know how to avoid them. This is also to help prevent workplace retaliation if they notice a coworker engaging in this kind of behavior.
Counter Workplace Retaliation with Help from Kimberly Prescott Speaks
As the owner of Prescott HR and a recognized business and management consulting expert, Kimberly Prescott is passionate about unintimidated HR. If you are interested in inspiring your team and transforming your HR department into a thriving, integral part of your workplace, then reach out to Kimberly Prescott for your next webinar or conference at (443) 351-8818.